6 replies to this topic

[penmanila]

some of you might find this interesting (and doable!).

tired of lugging several small leather cases around to our regular pen club meets here in manila, i decided to repurpose a wooden carrying case meant for artists' tools--paints, brushes, and palette--into a pen case. the only other big thing i needed was a pen tray from gopens.com (not bad at $7 per tray, good for 48 pens cut horizontally); all the wood used here came from the dividers in the original box. also some glue and varnish.

here's the full sequence of pics of the case in the making (stupid me forgot to take a pic of the artists' case with the original layout inside, but you can imagine that):



wish i could say that i did this all myself, but i had some help from a handyman-friend, so this wasn't exactly DIY i can resac vacumatics but am a klutz with a saw

at any rate, am very happy with the results--especially the little box in the middle that serendipitously proved a perfect fit for two pelikan TG-1 ink bottles.





now all i need is a little brass nameplate, and this baby will be good to go.

[david i]

Nicely done Jose,

Holds not quite as much as my 64-pen cases, but has a great deal more charm

regards

david

[penmanila]

thanks, david. now to make one for my pen repair tools

[PatMorgan]

Very nice.

What kind of glue was used to hold everything down?

[JonSzanto]

Well done, Jose. I very much like the inclusion of the ink bottles, as well.

[penmanila]

thanks, friends. the glue we ended up using was cryoanalate (to hold the pen trays down to the wood); i'd thought that rubber cement (or something goopy like it) would be best and safest, but my handyman said he used superglue for other jobs like this, so i let him have his way and it seems to have worked well.

we used a gun tacker to staple the elastic bands onto the wood (and the pen trays, in two spots).

the ink-bottle idea came to me in a flash of inspiration. i'd originally thought of using both top and bottom sides of the case to carry pens (more than 60 of them then), but it seemed more fun to have paper and ink in the case as well, especially for pen meets (to which we typically bring our latest finds and our daily writers, so 60 pens would be overkill). those TG-1 ink bottles are getting harder to find, by the way. one seller on ebay is selling them for $22 brand-new; glad i had a couple left on my shelves.

i'm having two 48-pen, stay-at-home, glass-topped display cases made for the collection by another guy here who makes cases for watch collectors. will post pics of those when done.

Edited by penmanila, 05 February 2013 - 01:53 AM.

[penmanila]

finally--the brass plate is up on my DIY pen box. project complete!



and here's the other case i had made, for 48 of my best vacs:

[Earthdawn]

Awesome work. Great detail too.

LOVE the case of Vacs